A flicker of something passed across Mia’s face, but she nodded a quick affirmative before Edie walked into the room.

“Mama,” Mia said again, this time to the older woman. “Can you sit, please?”

Mia’s tone must have set Edie on alert. She stopped midstride, her body stiff and unnatural. “I’m getting out of your way.”

“No.” Mia shook her head. “We need to ask you some questions.”

It was then that Edie’s gaze swung to Izzy, obvious in the reminder to Mia that there was an outsider there. “Don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Izzy sank lower in her chair, trying to make herself less obvious. The piercings and pink hair probably didn’t help. She ran a hand over the spiky strands to try to get them to lie flat.

“Mama.”

The two women had a silent conversation in just that one word.

Finally, Edie sighed, poured a cup of tea from the kettle Mia had put on, and then sat in the empty chair, her body angled toward her daughter, away from Izzy.

“You heard about Earl Bishop?”

Edie crossed her heart. “Bless him.”

Mia nodded once. “Where did I say I was going that night?”

If Edie was surprised by the abrupt question, she didn’t show it. Izzy guessed the words “that night” had never and would never need to be qualified.

“Out,” Edie said simply. “You didn’t lie.”

“Who did I say I was meeting up with?”

“The usual.”

Mia leaned forward. “Did I say ‘the usual,’ or is that you paraphrasing?”

Edie sighed and rubbed her thumb along the space between her brows. “I don’t know, Mia. It was a long time ago.”

“Okay.” Mia relaxed into the counter again. “Did I seem . . . normal?”

Edie’s thick brows shot up. “Don’t actually know if I even saw you more than in passing. Was at work most of the day.”

So Mia could have been out of it already. Was she thinking drugs? That . . . that would explain a lot.

“When Earl Bishop dropped me off here, what did he say?”

“Just that there’d been an incident at the lighthouse,” Edie answered slowly, clearly weighing each word. “And that Doc was already there and had bandaged you best he could. That you’d need to be looked at in the morning when everything settled down.”

“Do you remember anything about Earl in that moment?”

Edie crossed herself again, and Izzy was reminded that not everyone was as good at compartmentalizing death as she and Mia were. “I’m not speaking ill of the dead, Mia Mackenzie. Take that thought right out of your mind this second.”

Izzy tensed and shifted so she was no longer slouching. Ill of the dead. That meant there was something to say. Mia flicked a quick glance toward Izzy. She’d picked up on it, too.

“Mama, it could help the case.”